Mung bean sprouts taste great and are easy to grow. In this video, I will show you how our gardening class grew mung bean sprouts. Plus tips and lessons learned.
Use mung bean harvested from current or previous season. Mung bean stored for too long has low germination rate. Soak mung beans for 6-10 hours with lukewarm water. Be sure not to use hot water. Hot water will burn the beans and lower germination rate. How hot is too hot? It is too hot to mung beans if it is too hot for your hand.
We used three different ways to grow mung bean sprouts
1. Steamer.
This is my steamer I use for steaming glutinous rice for making rice wine at home. Spread cheesecloth. #50 is commonly used for growing microgreens. Wet the cheesecloth. Spread mung beans evenly on cheesecloth. Tuck in the cheesecloth snugly. Spray with water. Place a heavy plate to make sprouts grow stronger. The steamer was put under a box to reduce light level. Mung bean sprouts made in darkness look and taste better. Mung beans were rinsed 1-2 times a day.
This is what our mung bean sprouts look like in 5-6 days.
Lesson#1: My bad! I asked students to put in too much mung bean. There were some moldy mung beans because of overcrowding. Most sprouts were still good to eat.
We had a second try with only a thin layer of mung beans. The outcome was much better. Everybody got to take some sprouts home!
Lesson#2: Use paper towel instead of cheesecloth. It is hard to clean the roots off cheesecloth afterwards.
Lesson#3: The plate we used is a little too heavy and curvy.
2. Potting mix (Soil)
Two plastic trays. One with drainage holes and one without. Add some moist potting mix to the tray with drainage holes. Spread soaked mung bean. Cover mung beans with a thin layer of potting mix. Spray water to wet the potting mix. Keep the potting mix moist in the following days. No need to rinse.
These are mung bean sprouts in the tray in 7 days. These sprouts seemed thicker than those grown with the steamer method, but no real advantage over the steamer method. It is advised against using this method for growing mung bean sprouts.
3. Wet paper towel in trays
Two plastic trays. One with drainage holes and one without. Spray some paper towel. Wet the paper towel. Spread thin layer of soaked mung beans. Cover mung beans with more paper towel. Another round of spraying. Place trays in a box. No opening. No moving. Rinse mung beans with water daily. Mung bean sprouts were ready in 5 days!
Mung bean sprouts grown using this method are thick. This is the best of all three methods used in this class. It is therefore recommended for growing mung bean sprouts.
This is a mung bean dish prepared by a student in the class. This year’s gardening class is not only good at growing microgreens, but good at cooking as well. ----------------------------------------------------------
